not sure if its a ram issue or motherboard prob

everytime i load up my desktop cpu which is a 2004, 8300 dell. i get a error messege saying 0 hard drives found and hard drive one and two not found. it started doing this a few years ago when i first changed the hard drive but always still worked fine. now i started getting error messeges saying memory failure and the cpu would shut off automatically and say its protecting it from any damage. then it just stop going to the desktop screen at all with the black screen with a few error messeges. i tried to reinstall my windows it wont let me. i took to to best buy and asked what may be the prob and they told me its the mother board but needed to do a full dionostic which is more then i feel like giving them just for petty stuff they can tell me right off hand. does any of this sound fimilar to anyone? what do i need to do to get it back working.

To tell you right off the start that it's a motherboard issue without doing any diagnostics, tells you what a bunch of morons the Goon Squad at Best Buy is.

It could be several issues, motherboard, RAM, hard drive, etc. If you can boot up the computer at all, I would start by running Memtest and checking your RAM. Then I would go to the hard drives manufactures website and download their diagnostic tools. This alone could save you hundreds from Best Buy by diagnosing the problem yourself.

Go here - http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ and download Hiren's boot CD. Create the CD, then put it in your computer and boot to the Mini XP version. It will have Memtest and hard drive diagnostic utilities to test your system.

ok i will do exactly that. but i bought a new hard drive and its a 8gb and it still is doing the same prob. i want to take back that hard drive and get my money back because i have a 16 gb already which i bought a few years ago, then best buy told me that its either a mother board or ram issue but wanted to get paid. when it comes to all these probs fixing a cpu im not real fimilar with doing it so i need to know how to know if the wires to the ram are not bad and how would i know and if its the mother board where would i go about getting a decent priced one at

A new hard drive and it's 8 Gb? They haven't made 8Gb drives in years so it's not new. Did you buy it used? If so, most likely it's bad.

There are no wires that go to the RAM, there are sockets on the motherboard that the RAM inserts into.

Follow my first instructions with the Hirens boot CD. If your board is good and you can run the tests, you can test your RAM and hard drive. Offhand my suspicions would be with the 8 gig drive, that thing is probably at least 10 years old and if its used, it's either bad or very close to it

I would find a local mom and pop computer shop in your area, the service level you will find there will far surpass Best Buy and they can probably find you a decent motherboard to fit your needs at a decent price.

ok but the 8gb hard drive is brand new i have had it for close to 30 days and thats how long they give me until i am not able to return it. but my 16 gb drive is still partly new since i changed it in at the end of 09 or earily 2010. it should go bad that fast. and i think its a ram issue or either a mother board issue. but how do i get a boot cd that u are talking about? but i will check the ram today to see if any sockets are loose or misplaced

Might be cpu overheat. Partial short in mbd or cpu-internal, either one could cause overheat protection. Some bios's will display cpu temperature and/or current-draw (boot to bios "setup"-screen to view, if available). Since it is degrading, I would suspect something along these lines, but I am no expert.

To get the boot CD, go to the website I gave you the link to and download the zip file. It will have the file you need to make the CD and also a small CD burning program. Obviously you will need to do this on a functioning computer.

Just out of curiosity, how old is your system, how much did you pay for an 8 gig drive, and why are you buying such a small drive?

I am also puzzled about the 8gig hard drive. It makes no sense to buy such a small capacity hard drive (with all its moving parts), when the same sized USB stick (no moving parts, all solid state) can be bought for 10 bucks or less. I haven't seen such a small hard drive for a very long time. Best Buy probably found it behind a pile of discontinued stock and thought it was their lucky day when the chance of selling it walked into the store.

As was mentioned above, heat could be a factor here. Open the case and carefully removed the fan from the heatsink (that sits on the CPU). DO NOT disturb the seal between the CPU and heatsink (The "seal" isactually a heat transfer compound). Use a can of compressed air to blow dust from between the fins of the heatsink, and clean the fan before putting it back on. If you smoke near your computer, the cleaning will be a little harder as the dust will be mixed with nicotine/tar, making it stick like sh*t to a blanket.

It'd pay to do the cleaning before running any diagnostics, as the heat issues can affect the test results (or even prevent diagnostics from completing).

i ordered the drive off of ebay and i didnt know at all which gb i would be recieving. so im going to return it soon before its to late. they pulled a fast one on me with that 8 gb drive.but as another person said on here it could be the heat because there is alot of dust on this cpu. tons of it. and its a 2004 cpu from dell and a 8300. ill get some dust cleaner and work on that part tonight

im at a cmp at college and cant get nothing to download, whats stopping me. im being asked to download something else which isnt helpful at all. the site you gave to me is giving me trouble and im not allowed to download what i need, or i just flat out dont know what im doing

? i can test my cpu now i think. it gives me a option to press f1 or f2 or f12 for boot menu settings. is that the same stuff i would do with the boot cd you asking me to download? if all i need to do is test it would something in one of those settings allow me to do it?

No, those options let you save the changes made to the CMOS configuration, select a start up order, or go into the BIOS. HP's have a diagnostic section in the BIOS, you might have a look around in there. I don't know if Dell has that option or not.

I'm not sure what you mean by you're being asked to download something else. Did you go all the way down to the bottom of the page and click on the link that says - http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/H...

i will try it again maybe i need to read the full page but i did click and download something but i will thouroughly do it again. im considering maybe just getting a labtop and kill all the easy work to a cpu savy tech agent but since its my first time its harder. or just have someone in the family do it who is very good at it. but i think i can do it which might be my doom

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